Dane, Joseph A.
Papers on Language and Literature 24 (1988): 115-33. Reprinted in Joseph A. Dane, The Critical Mythology of Irony (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1991), pp. 135-49.
Now a mainstay of Chaucerian criticism, the term "irony" has designated at least three different concepts in literary history, variously emphasizing the authority of the text, the poet, and the critic. Rhetorical irony, the "appeal to an absent…
Foster, Michael.
Medieval and Early Modern English Studies 18 (2010): 341-60.
It is "anachronistic to assume" that Chaucer distinguished between the "reading and hearing of his literary works." His "style is best understood as a versatile adaptation of language to suit both silent and vocalized readings."
Warner, Lawrence.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Surveys the "Langland archive" to address the history of the production and reception of "Piers Plowman."The "Conclusion" (pp. 129-40) reveals early eighteenth-century textual scholarship that attributes "Piers Plowman" to Chaucer.
Friedman, Albert B.
Chaucer Review 11 (1977): 328-33.
The grain which the Virgin places on the clergeon's tongue and which is removed after his death to stop his singing is simply a prop necessary to the structure of the tale; elaborate allegorizations are unnecessary.
Rudat, Wolfgang E. H.
Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, 1985.
Includes chapters on classical allusion in Pope, More, and Milton, and two chapters devoted to Chaucer. Chapter 2 explores Chaucer's allusions to Virgil's "Aeneid" in KnT, concerning fate. Chaucer's view of a chaotic universe is compared to…
Tamakawa, Asumi.
Koichi Kano, ed. Through the Eyes of Chaucer: Essays in Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Society for Chaucer Studies (Kawasaki: Asao Press, 2014), pp. 125-37.
Examines connotations of words concerning oaths and mutilation of body in PardT in relation to contemporary attitudes toward the worship of relics. In Japanese.
Mogan, Joseph J., Jr.
American Notes and Queries 8 (1969): 19.
Observes that carpenter John's sense of worldly instability in MilT is established in 1.3423-30 and 1.3449-50, anticipating his ready acceptance of Nicholas's prediction of the Flood later in the Tale.
Chamberlain, David
Chaucer Review 5.1 (1970): 32-56.
Argues that Chaucer "weaves through the structure and themes of [PF] all four medieval species of music, and numerous subspecies, in a way that emphasizes the failing of the eagles" and "that the [planetary] spheres are . . . the cause of almost all…
Newhauser, Richard G.
Annette Kern-Stahler, Beatrix Busse, and Wietse de Boer, eds. The Five Senses in Medieval and Early Modern England (Boston: Brill, 2016), pp. 199-218.
Explores the "full sensory expression" in Chaucer's "construction of space," emphasizing the interconnectedness of the five senses in medieval understanding and their ethical dimensions that require proper training to engage volition correctly.…
Pichaske, David R.
Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1977.
A reading of the CT as "Chaucer's aesthetic and metaphysical pilgrimage" in which his religious orthodoxy eventually supersedes "alternatives and legitimate philosophical doubts." Follows the Ellesmere order of the tales (defending it on thematic…
Taylor, Karla.
Brian Gastle and Erick Kelemen, eds. Later Middle English Literature, Materiality, and Culture: Essays in Honor of James M. Dean (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2018.), pp. 25-41.
Uses Sergej Karcevskij’s theory of miscommunication to clarify the amalgamation and "redoctrinations" of various versions and interpretations of the Midas story, exploring how Chaucer's version in WBT engages Ovid's original and related materials.
Hejaiej, Mounira Monia.
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 12.1 (2010): n.p.
Provides comparative analysis of the modern Tunisian tale "Sabra," an analogue of ClT, told by a woman to an exclusively female audience. Includes summary of and commentary on Chaucer's "ambivalent and ironic version," plus other medieval European…
Wentersdorf, Karl P.
Studies in Short Fiction 17 (1980): 249-54.
Scatological jests, such as dividing Thomas' "yifte," are derived from classical sources and adapted to Christian theology. Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscripts frequently show defecation or breaking of wind to drive away the devil. The…
Miller tallies a number of "hybrid derivatives" from before 1500, focusing on top-frequency suffixes. Examples and conclusions involve Chaucerian usage, including Chaucer's tendency to develop "non-technical hybrids" and to use "non-prestige French…
Buhler, Curt F.
Mieczyslaw Brahmer, Stanislaw Helsztynski, and Julian Krzyzanowski, eds. Studies in Language and Literature in Honour of Margaret Schlauch (Warsaw: PWN—Polish Scientific Publishers, 1966), pp. 49-55.
Considers the authorship and manuscript provenance of a French version of the tale of Melibee, an analogue of Mel.
Langdon, Alison Ganze
Year’s Work in Medievalism 28 (2012): 2-9.
Examines ClT and Maria Edgeworth's "The Modern Griselda" in light of their respective contemporaneous conduct manuals for women, arguing that the protagonist of each narrative becomes "monstrous" in "fulfilling too completely the ideals of womanhood…
Burnley, J. D.
Yearbook of English Studies 6 (1976): 16-25.
The wording of MerT has many echoes, some heretofore unidentified, of medieval marriage services. Suggestions of the Christian ideal are thus juxtaposed to the characters' perverse misunderstandings of marriage throughout the tale, providing an…
Brondell, William J.
Dissertation Abstracts International 25.10 (1965): 5901-02A.
Uses ParsT as a standard by which to assess the morality of CT, discussing the "ubiquity of sin in the Canterbury pilgrims," the "prominence of Pride" in especially the Wife of Bath and Pardoner materials, and the balancing virtues found elsewhere in…
Mitchell, Charles.
College English 27 (1966): 437-44.
Asks why the Pardoner "always preaches against his own sin" and why he admits to doing so to the Canterbury pilgrims, using the questions to argue that he is a con-man rather than a hypocrite, and one who considers himself morally superior to his…
Hieatt, Constance B.
Studia Neophilologica 42 (1970): 3-8.
Identifies nine aphoristic statements in NPT and assesses the extent to which they can be considered the "moralite" referred to by the narrator in 7.3440. Considers analogous fables and claims that Chaucer's version demonstrates "a common Chaucerian…
Johnson, Bruce A.
David G. Allen and Robert A. White, eds. Subjects on the World's Stage: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1995), pp.54-61.
The geographic references in PardT, of which the stile is the central figure, represent a loosely symbolic, "moral" landscape that adds to the moral tone of the tale.
Tavormina, M. Teresa.
Ball State University Forum 22 (1981): 14-19.
The lunar calendar and imagery of TC 4, though inspired by a similar device in "Filostrato," are far more elaborate than those in the source. The title characters are often directly correlated to these images, which deepens their development.
In this last book Chaucer uses a number of devices inexorably to distance the reader from the personages in the poem. He suggests astral influence that brings about the inevitable movement of joy-to-sorrow in love.
